LHS LSA students finish glass mural

Paige Daly, Staff Writer – Recently, a glass mural for Lecanto High School [LHS]’s courtyard was put together by two Lecanto School of the Arts [LSA] students. Art teacher Polly Hilgert and seniors Gabby Hayes and Amelia Burgess worked on the mural for a year and a half. Hayes started with the “L” sketch and through trial and error, the trio began creating their ideas and making them into a reality.

It was designed to reflect the unique qualities of Citrus County and LHS. The community is reflected through the diversity of the people on the mural and the mirrors represent a personal sense of belonging. The mural also shows beautiful land, trees, and waves to represent our beautiful nature coast.

Hilgert originally thought of the idea because she wanted a way to express their passion for artwork, community and nature at LHS.

“I had all this glass [at home] and we [LSA] wanted to expand throughout the school and share our love for art,” said Hilgert.

Senior Gabby Hayes continues to work on the glass mural. (Photo: Daly).

The project continued to be developed further as Hilgert, Hayes, and Burgess worked more and more on it.

“I didn’t have a whole idea; it started with the ‘L’ for Lecanto and it was mostly [going to] be patterns and lines,” said Hayes. “It developed as we worked on it, but the ‘L’ [remained] to represent Lecanto.”

Both Burgess and Hayes felt honored to be chosen for the project, but also felt pressured knowing it would be featured in the school for a long time.

“It feels good because it’s a huge responsibly and it’s [going to] be up in the school for years and it’s very important,” said Hayes.

Burgess felt that Hayes was an integral part of finishing the mural, as she worked out all of the finer details.

“Gabby was really in charge of figuring out where everything was. I requested ideas along with Mrs. Hilgert, but Gabby figured out where everything was [going to] go,” said Burgess.

The finished product will be displayed in the courtyard before the end of the school year with the help of LHS mathematics teacher, Mr. David Logue.